Events Around the World

NOW explores how the diversity of current female artistic practice transcends notions of gender difference to offer hybrid perspectives on their socio-political environment. ACC alumni Li Shurui, Ma Quisha and Yin Xiuzhen are some of the most exciting female artists working in mainland China.

From giant installations and elusive sculptural pieces challenging and exploring everyday objects to powerful and other-worldly visual narratives, the huge variety of artworks found throughout the NOW programme, reflects the many viewpoints of artists in the wake of feminist movements of the past.

This exhibition is based on the perception that radical avoidance of food on the one hand, and its excessive consumption on the other, are deviations from the middle way; the two meet up where fine taste ends. Abstaining entirely from food as a performative artistic act that has exceeded its own limits is the core of Franz Kafka’s Hunger Artist. The tale’s hero fasts before an audience of spectators for forty days, until the audience grows bored. The artist continues to fast in a circus cage containing only hay. One day an inspector finds the artist dying under the hay, and asks him why he did not eat.

Seeing is something most of us take for granted. Yet, to consciously see is surprisingly difficult, and as a result, we tend to miss much of what there is to see. An art museum is a place for “seeing,” “admiring,” and “thinking about” artworks. To the visitors to this exhibition, whether they normally enjoy viewing artworks or find it difficult, we would like to say, “First of all, begin by seeing well.” The exhibition “Adventures in ‘Seeing’” starts there.Open yourself to the artwork a little more than usual. Stand and view it 10 seconds longer than usual. After viewing it thoroughly, relax and view it a little more. Doing so, you will begin to see details you had not noticed, and your imagination will have time to come into play. Discoveries, surprises, and new feelings will come to you in an experience really no different from an adventure story.

SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, curated by Artistic Director Mami Kataoka, presents the work of 70 artists and artist collectives from 35 countries at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney Opera House and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

The Biennale of Sydney is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Biennale acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and pay respect to Elders, both past and present.

Leading 20th century photographer William Klein had a decisive influence on modern visual culture with his expression that went beyond genres such as photography, movies, design and fashion, and his works capturing the cities of the world, including New York, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, etc. In this exhibition, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT introduces the city vision of Klein and Japanese and Asian photographers trying to examine the cities and people of the 21st century with a fresh perspective and greatly transcend the frames of conventional photos.

The exhibition remembers the past and captures the diversity and transformation of the current Vietnamese American community. VIET STORIES incorporates the history of refugees and immigrants from Vietnam through historical photographs, documents, artifacts, oral history interviews, and original artwork by prominent Vietnamese American artists.

“Songs for Sabotage,” the fourth New Museum Triennial, questions how individuals and collectives around the world might effectively address the connection of images and culture to the forces that structure our society.

The New Museum Triennial is the only recurring international exhibition in New York City devoted to emerging artists from around the world, providing an important platform for a new generation of artists who are shaping the current discourse of contemporary art and the future of culture. The first edition was initiated in 2009 with “Younger Than Jesus,” organized by Massimiliano Gioni, Laura Hoptman, and Lauren Cornell. The second Triennial, “The Ungovernables,” was organized by Eungie Joo in 2012. The third Triennial, “Surround Audience,” was organized by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin with Sara O’Keeffe and Helga Christoffersen in 2015.

Chinese Folk Pottery: The Art of the Everyday exhibition explores contemporary folk pottery produced within the diversity of ethnic minorities and Han people across China. It examines pottery from three perspectives: production values, functions, and aesthetics.

ACC grantee Dinh Q. Lê revisits this historical event to create stunning photo-montages where he weaves photographic strips into a tapestry of images, a continuation of his artistic practice in the medium of print and paper. From elaborate cyanotypes to exquisite foiling works, Lê examines and captures the splendour and darkness of Cambodian history through its enduring legacy of architectural monuments and photographic memorials. His works encapsulate the common human experience of loss and redemption, merging Eastern and Western cultures, as well as personal and fictional realities.

With enormous projects inside and outside Japan, world-class architect and ACC alumnus Kengo Kuma (b. 1954) is constantly on the move. This exhibition is a major survey of his projects from the past 30 years, projects underpinned by Kuma's intimate knowledge of Eastern and Western thought, both past and present, and his own innovative concepts, which include ideas on “makeru kenchiku (losing architecture)” and “shizen na kenchiku (natural architecture).” The exhibition focuses in particular on materials, which Kuma has dialoged with extensively through his work. It organizes his architecture, product designs and other achievements not chronologically but rather by the category of primary material, including bamboo, wood, paper, stone and earth, in an attempt to provide an overview of Kuma's work from the standpoint of “things.”

The works of Japanese artists have occasionally been shown in Cuba through events such as the Havana Biennial, but this is the first exhibition to present a substantial collection of Japanese contemporary art. Rather than simply feature works by artists living in modern-day Japan, the exhibition is created through dialogue and collaboration between Japanese and Cuban curators, and with Japanese artists working together with Cuban artists and local communities. It presents mainly new works—including paintings, photographs, videos, and installations—by seven Japanese (and ACC alumna Yuko Mohri is one of the artists) and four Cuban artists at Cuba’s leading contemporary art museum, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam. The exhibition will travel to Tokyo, Japan in June, after it wraps up in Cuba.

In The goddess and the god separate under the peach tree, Miwa Yanagi's solo exhibition, Ms. Yanagi associates Japanese mythology with Fukushima, Japan´s last major tragedy. The peach-trees photographed by Yanagi are located in the district of Fukushima and their fruits had been hit by harmful rumors. Now they are checked for radioactive contamination and that Fukushima's commercially available products are safe. They are the witnesses, as well as victims of this event.

“A Colossal World” investigates the reciprocal channels of influence established between multiple generations of Japanese artists and the city of New York. While these artists absorbed elements of New York’s culture into new artworks, they also impacted and enriched New York’s culture itself. This exhibition, though not claiming to be a historical or academic in-depth study, aims to help trace the evolution of this vibrant exchange from Japan’s post-World-War-II economic boom to the present, from mid-century avant-gardes to emerging contemporary artists pushing new boundaries.

Shuta Hasunuma’s Compositions features a selection of new works created both in Japan and during Hasunuma’s Pioneer Works residency in winter 2017. The exhibition is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States. It gathers together sculpture and videos centered on sounds from everyday life, which probe the circumstances and frameworks surrounding human existence.

Hasunuma’s sound works center on environmental and electronic sounds and extensive collaborations with diverse musicians including Akio Suzuki, Keiji Haino, and Fluxus member Mieko Shiomi. By molding, arranging, and visualizing sounds in time and space, Hasunuma’s practice seeks to answer the question: How can something intangible like sound or music be transferred between human beings in physical, material form? Hasunuma creates situations and environments that bring together people of different ages, genders, and ethnicities. Through their interaction they seek to illuminate afresh exactly what it is we call “sound” or “music.”

Tainaner Ensemble is regarded as the role model in Taiwan modern theatre. Established in 1987, it is a professional troupe with the biggest size and longest history in southern part of Taiwan.

Led by the current art director, Lu Bo-shen, it continually develops different series, such as "Western Classics Translation Series" and "Unplug Shakespeare Series", and introduces the works of modern-day dramatists in Taiwan.

As a vigorous troupe in contemporary society, it is dedicated to create high-quality productions and always amazes the audience with innovative and experimental approaches.

In addition, it is dedicated to theatre education. For example, sometimes it holds theatre workshops for community. It opens actor school every summer. It began a youth theatre education program in 1999, and published Taiwan first professional periodical for theatrical comments named Theatre Matters.

‘Luminous Shadows’ is ACC grantee and Thai filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s first solo exhibition in the Baltic States. This exhibition is part of a larger project ‘Luminous Shadows: Selected Installations & Film Retrospective of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’.

In the artist’s own words, the project ‘reveals different memories of light. Some of the works are an investigation of my home-region of Isan in northeastern Thailand. Some are dreams. Some are simply looking. But all of them are personal.’ His films and video installations form a multi-layered universe where characters and themes travel from one work to another. The exhibition in the CAC’s Great Hall presents video works and installations the artist has created over the last fifteen years.

Distant Observer: Tokyo/New York Correspondence is a collaboration between Japanese playwright/director Takeshi Kawamura and American playwright/director John Jesurun, both ACC alumni. The project is conceived as a play written and directed in collaborative partnership by both artists. Written in corresponding chapters by each playwright, it combines two established artists of the same generation, both with distinct voices and significant work, in a deep creative conversation across cultures.

Through the embrace of capitalism, human degeneration is explored in “Ziggurat,” the latest exhibition of ACC grantee and visual artist Mideo Cruz at Kaida Contemporary in Quezon City. The show is further described in his exhibition notes, “…though opulence and grandeur are often displayed through excessive consumption, the continual debasement of the quality of human life lies underneath the glitter. Block by block, the idea of development devours humanity. As humans consume the illusion, they are the ones who are inevitably consumed.”

Shen Wei Dance Arts and WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company join a diverse and dynamic roster of internationally celebrated artists and local favourites, as the Vancouver International Dance Festival presents three weeks of endlessly enriching performances, workshops, and a host of dance activities from March 1 to 24, 2018, at various venues throughout Vancouver.

In the 16th century, gazing out from the decks of ships off the coast of Southern China, Portuguese sailors saw it: a great green mass, thick with mountains and trees, rising from the sea. “Formosa!” they exclaimed—“beautiful!”—anointing the verdant place that would come to be known as Taiwan.

Lin Hwai-min and his Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan take that appraisal as inspiration for their own work of abstract beauty born from land and lore.

Using gesture, script, song and other elements from the island as raw material, Lin and dancers create a lustrous, transfigured sphere in which only the universal remains— a playground of love and life, mediated by tragedy, hope, and rebirth.

Returning to BAM after the ecstatic hymn to compassion On Behalf of Nature (2014 Next Wave), ACC grantee Meredith Monk and the four women of her peerless vocal ensemble present a new work, continuing their investigation of the interconnected, ineffable relationship between humans and the natural world.

Pairing voice with movement, instrumentation, and a site-specific video installation, Cellular Songs contemplates the fundamental unit of life and its relation to the universe. Drawing inspiration from biological processes—layering, division, replication, mutation—Monk looks to underlying systems in nature that can serve as a prototype for human behavior in our tumultuous world.

The Asian Art Award supported by Warehouse TERRADA is a contemporary art award established to provide assistance for emerging artists in Japan with exciting international prospects in Asia and beyond. The winner is selected through a two-stage process. A panel of five curators first put forward five artists each to make a shortlist of 20 candidates. The four finalists chosen from these will create new work or the equivalent, which is currently being exhibited at TERRADA ART COMPLEX. During this exhibition, a jury of six international art world figures will decide the recipients of the Grand Prize and Special Award.

With keen insight, Yang Yuanyuan captures invisible traces and blurred coordinates in ever-changing urban environments. Places like construction sites, cold parking garages, sparsely populated zoos, and abandoned restrooms are restored to sight through her photographs. The installations and photographs exhibited in “Interval” all manifest the artist's concern for human society and the environment. Yet this preoccupation is not derived from her romantic imagination, but through her practice of fieldwork. In addition to photographing original images, she re-presents existing materials that are recovered as found images. These two types of visual material subtly intertwine to construct the artist’s imagined world.

This concert offers a chance to enjoy some of the most noteworthy French and Chinese piano music from the beginning of the 20th century, with a screening of Edgard Varèse: The One All Alone to help place the relationship between these two artistic cultures in context, revealing fascinating connections.